Ododo Commits To Reducing Maternal, Child Mortality

Governor of Kogi State, Alhaji Ahmed Usman Ododo, has  reiterated his  administration’s  commitment to reducing maternal, neonatal and child mortality.

Ododo who stated this yesterday while opening the Kogi State Training-the-Trainers (STOT) on integrated management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM), funded through the ANRIN project,  noted that “all these steps are essential for improving the health of women and children in the state.”

The governor who was represented by his chief of staff, Alhaji Ali Bello, said, “With God Almighty on our side, we have been delivering on our promises to the people of the state and we promise to continue to do so. One of such promises is what we have come to flag off today. This is to initiate the processes of improving skills of our health workers to treat and return malnourished children in the

state to normal health.

“Let me say at this juncture, that malnutrition happens during the “first 1000 days” of life, that is, the period from conception to a child’s second birthday.

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“Many children fall behind in nutrition from the age of 6 months until two years.

This significant deterioration in nutritional status can be prevented by focusing on a set of well-proven interventions,” the governor noted.

The governor listed these interventions to include; appropriate maternal, infant and young child nutrition, prevention and appropriate treatment of diarrhoea with Zinc and oral rehydration solution (ORS) and provision of Vitamin A and other essential vitamins and minerals through food fortification and supplementation.

Others according to the governor are; Half yearly deworming, and healthy sanitation behaviours, which are hand washing before preparing meals and feeding children.

“These inexpensive and cost-effective interventions can be scaled-up relatively rapidly, thus not only boosting children’s chances of survival, but enabling them to fully develop their cognitive functions, preparing them to be active learners and contributors to economic growth. Most of the damage caused by malnutrition is largely irreversible later in life.

“Conversely, the benefits from early nutrition captured by young children are carried with them for the rest of their lives. This is why the state government has committed a lot of resources to ensure malnutrition is drastically reduced,” he said.

He stressed that while the government is committed to preventing malnutrition in the state through all these interventions and more, his administration have gone ahead to initiate treatment for those who are acutely malnourished and bring them back to normal and good health status.

According to him, Kogi State Health Insurance Agency have been instructed to take care of treatment charges for all malnourished children who might appear in referral centres with other co-morbidities.

Earlier, the commissioner for Health, Dr. Abdulazeez Adams Adeiza, called on participants to take the training seriously, assuring that the state government is poised at

getting right the nutritional condition of the children in the state, through considerable reduction in malnutrition.

Speaking also the chief medical director, (CMD), Kogi State Specialists Hospital, Lokoja, Dr Oluseye Folagbade, noted that the Training the Trainers (STOT), on integrated management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) will lead to better patients management.